'Grandmother! What big ears you have.'

It took all her effort to steady her voice. She could barely concentrate over the sound of her racing heartbeat. She took a step closer.

'All the better to hear you with, my dear' came the reply. The words were delivered slowly, each dripping with malice. The blood-soaked teeth of the Wolf curled into an expectant smile. They both knew she was trapped, it was just playing with its food.

It was sat upright in the bed, staring at her, unmoving. Its black fur was covered by a bloody, torn nightgown that the creature had squeezed itself into. Her grandmother's favourite. Red dared not take her eyes off the beast, not from fear of what it may do, but afraid she would see the leftovers of her last remaining family scattered across the room.

'But Grandmother! What big eyes you have' whispered Red, searching for ways to stall the creature. The pitch black orbs remained fixed on her, unblinking. If it had seen the silver knife she held behind her back, it showed no signs of it.

'All the better to see you with, my dear'. Even its voice cut through her very core. A perfect replica of her grandmother. The same jolly tone that once meant freshly baked cookies and warm milk now taunted her, another piece in whatever sick game the Wolf was playing.

She could see herself reflected in the unnatural darkness of its eyes - how weak and feeble she stood, how utterly tiny she was amongst the endless void she had been warned against...

--------------

"Easiest way to identify a Demon is right here" explained the Lumberjack, pointing towards his eyes "no iris, no pupil - just pure darkness". He brought his axe down, cleaving the firewood in two. "If you're serious about hunting these things -"

"I am" interrupted Red. The soft flicker of the campfire danced between them. Its orange glow illuminated the small girl wrapped in her red riding cloak and the towering, scarred frame of the woodsman. "I know they are dangerous and evil and clever and everything else you've been warning me about -

"Exactly! Then you know you should leave now and -

"but I have to stop them! I have to be stronger!" she cried out, her voice catching on the lump in her throat, "all I could do was run and now my parents are..." Dead. She knew it, But saying it out loud would make it real. She couldn't make it real. Not yet.

The Lumberjack walked over and rested a giant, gentle hand on her shoulder, "I know, I'm sorry", he pulled back her hood and lifted her chin so their eyes met, "Just promise me one thing - never face one alone"

----------------

Red had made that promise, yet here she was. The first sign of tracks and she had run off, confident she could handle things herself.

Yet now, all the training that she had put herself through had turned tail and fled. Her body was trying to do the same thing, screaming at her to run. Instead she took another pace forward, still desperately clutching onto both her confidence and her knife.

The Wolf's head moved with her as she got closer, its smile growing impossibly wide, its body remaining motionless. Now only a foot away, she could feel the hot, sickly stench of its breath. Flesh and bone still clung to its jagged teeth. The reality of the situation finally hit her. This was no beast to be hunted. There was no wolf - it never had been. Just fur stretched over something older. Something cruel and ancient that shouldn't have fit inside flesh yet had done so anyway. She saw that now. Too late.

How foolish had she been? She had ignored the warnings because what - she was stronger now? Smarter? Tougher?

Tears rolled down her face as her knife clattered to the ground. Her thoughts fragmented, eyes turning vacant. Her final grip on sanity clung to a single phrase, a final observation to try and tether herself to her surroundings. Repeated over and over, trying to fend off the tide of despair, each less audible than the last.

"Grandmother - what big teeth you have"

Finally the Wolf moved, rising from the bed. Its joints cracked like splitting bones as it rose, hunching under the ceiling. It lowered its head down to Red's eye level but she was no longer there. Just a body wrapped in red, muttering its final plea 'Grandmother - what big teeth you have'

"The better to eat you with, my dear."